Tyler Haws reminded the nation of the days when Jimmer Fredette wore Cougar blue Saturday as the BYU Cougars defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies 97-71 at EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City.

Haws scored 42 points — a career high — shooting 14 of 25 from the field (56 percent) and making 6 of his 8 attempted 3-point shots. Haws, at one point, was 9 of 11 from the field and 6 of 7 from 3-point range. Through 13 minutes and 43 seconds of the contest, it was Tyler Haws 26, Virginia Tech 25.

BYU held a 25-point lead at the end of the first half and rode the first-half offensive explosion to the win. At the 14:50 mark of the second half, the Cougars had stretched their lead to 32 points before Virginia Tech began coming back.

The Hokies went on a 10-0 run and cut the lead to 20 with 7:33 remaining in the game, but by then, the outcome had long since been determined. With just more than six minutes remaining, Josh Sharp's electric hoop-and-harm hammer dunk was an exclamation point for the Cougars.

The game was over after Haws scored six straight points and was substituted out for Craig Cusick with 3:05 remaining.

Perhaps more impressive than Haws' offensive performance was the Cougars' defense. Tech's Erick Green averages 25.4 points per game and is the nation's leading Division 1 scorer. In this contest, however, Green scored a mere 12 points on 4-for-17 shooting.

Besides Haws, BYU was led in scoring by Brandon Davies and Josh Sharp. Davies finished with 17 points, going 5 for 7 from the field and 7 for 9 from the charity stripe. Davies sprained his ankle midway through the second half did not play for the final nine minutes. Instead, Dave Rose opted in favor of a combo between 6-foot-11 freshman Ian Harward and junior college transfer Agustin Ambrosino.